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Cairo's thriving art scene

"We have many fans that will get very angry if we didn't release these songs," says Eid, who claims the band speaks the mind of many Egyptians.

In doing so they realize they could face censorship and defamation campaigns, similar to those faced by television satirist Bassem Youssef who had his show cancelled last September after mocking supporters of Egypt's military. He is now on air again with a different network. Cairokee performed three songs on the first of his new shows.

Sitting at the makeshift studio within Eid's family apartment in which the band recorded most of their songs for the past 10 years, they insist they are not political.

"We talk about freedom, social rights, what we think will make a better place for all of us," says guitarist Sherif El-Hawary. "A lot of people kind of mix that, that we have a political agenda. We don't really."

After years of little success or recognition they rose to prominence through their participation in "Sout El-Horreya" ("The Sound of Freedom"), a song recorded during the Tahrir Square sit-in in 2011.

For the three years that followed they released other songs that also became anthems to Egypt's revolution, urging Egyptians to "hold their ground" in "Ethbat Makanak" and in another yearning for "The Square."

Their concerts included free performances at political sit-ins.

"The revolution is not politics. Dignity is not politics. This is what we sing about. We didn't sing about politics, but we sing about basic human rights," says Eid.

They have a committed and growing fan-base and when they released on YouTube "Nas Betroos We Nas Betmoot" ("People Die While Others Dance") it gained 1 million views in two months.

For the band the song symbolizes a clash of generations, which they think is the source of most of Egypt's problems: an older generation holding on to an idea of stability and a younger one trying to shape the future it will live in.

Eid's raspy vocals give the band's music a unique sound, while they cultivate an unconventional image, riding high-powered "muscle" motorbikes in defiance of the terrible Cairo traffic as an "escape from reality."

The band is honest about the potential violent consequence of taking a stand against deep-seated views, but they choose to remain optimistic.

"This voice is like a turtle. (We) work very slowly, but we never go back... Look at the past three years, regimes changed and we continued the revolution," says Eid.